Puerto Ayora 22:22
After spending my first month temporarily in one house, I have moved down the street to my new host family. It’s a completely different experience here. My first family consisted of my host Mom Norma and her son Raphael along with 4 other volunteers. Here however, Dora, my new house Mom and her entire family live in this makeshift duplex. There are little kids always running around which gives the house a certain type of vivaciousness. In case kids screaming weren’t going to wake me up in the morning, I also have the incredible privilege of waking up to a rooster crowing in the backyard. Oh and a little myth about the rooster that needs to be straightened out. They crow at all hours of the day and night, not just at sunrise. They fortunately also are baking bread at 6:30 in the morning, which smells absolutely incredible. The family also doesn’t speak a lot of English, so it has really allowed me to work on my Spanish. So far the new family has been clucking great!
One of the projects I am working on here has been providing free blood pressure and blood sugar screenings with the help of one of the volunteers named Sienne. While I do enjoy working in the hospital, my work on this project I feel is making the biggest difference in some of the lives of people on the island. So far we have caught about twelve adults with blood sugar levels over 200 (most over 300 and one was over 600) and four people I know seek medical treatment after running a second blood sugar test a few days later. It’s amazing the number of people on this island that have never had their blood pressure or blood sugar levels ever checked and aren’t even sure of what it is they can do to help control their levels.
Work at the hospital has been good. It’s incredible the number of women here that are pregnant and I would put money on the table to go as far as stating that majority are under the age of 20. I was talking with my host mom’s daughter who is 29 and has 4 children. She was telling me how her and a lot of her friends had their first children at 15-16 years old. She now has a daughter who is 14. That means there is a chance she could be a grandma at the age of 31!!!!! WOAH!
When I was working last Saturday night, we all of the sudden saw the fire truck with its sirens on. It was the first time I saw the fire truck so I went and grabbed my camera since a photo of the fire truck is more difficult to capture than one of an albatross. I suddenly saw an entire parade with music, cars, and floats with crazy designs. On top of each float was an outstanding woman. I had absolutely no idea what was going on and neither did anyone else. It turns out that it was a Miss Galapagos pageant. I was so mad I missed it, but at least I saw them driving down the street and obviously waving at me (girls love doctors)
One of the advantages of working with a doctor who speaks English is that you deal with the tourists. Granted most of the time that would be a negative (just kidding), we got to go on a large luxury sailboat yesterday and check the crew for any flu-like symptoms. It was a beautiful boat and I told them that if they need any extra crewmembers to please don’t hesitate to call. Their next stop is through the Panama Canal to get to the Bahamas. I doubt I’ll get the call despite one of his crewmembers being sick, but like Kevin Garnett, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!!!!!
"I'm on a boat!"
Last Monday we had a barbecue at my friends’ Alan and Jose Louis’ house. I have been trying to have this be a weekly thing, so that I can enjoy some incredible fish. This week it was Wahoo glazed in a soy-teriyaki sauce and some albacore tuna that was brushed with a little oil, salt and pepper. It was a little on the rare side, but I’m a huge fan of undercooked fish and I thought it was great. We then wanted to go and see the Leonids Meteor shower since most nights it’s a clear sky and we should be able to see the Leo constellation from the Galapagos. Of course the one night I want to look at the stars I can’t because it decided to be cloudy. If not for the great company, I might have been a little frustrated, but we had fun anyways. While setting up for one of the pictures, I almost stepped on a marine iguana and it brushed against my leg as I then started shouting like a little kid. I turned on my flashlight to see an entire family of marine iguanas lying on top of each other. It was basically like an orgy of marine iguanas on this one black rock. They sure do like to huddle up close to each other.
I am working a 24 hr shift tomorrow with a little 2 hour break during which I am going with Sienne to provide a free BP, blood sugar screening to the local police here. It’s crazy to see how quickly time flies as I only have 7 weeks left. My sister Kendra comes in a few weeks which will be great and when I will be doing the majority of my traveling to the other islands! SOOOO EXCITED!
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